At some point, the audiences of both platforms converged, creating a niche territory for digital marketers and businesses. Today, both platforms host over 4 billion users combined. Despite some basic similarities, each offers unique features to help your business reach specific audiences and capture fresh leads. So, which one is the right choice for your business?
We’ll be honest—there’s no definitive answer to this. Each has its strengths, and depending on your business objectives, brand needs, and digital marketing strategy, you might find one more suitable than the other. Before we delve into a deep comparison of both, ask yourself the following questions:
- What kind of audience do you hope to reach through these platforms?
- How do you wish to segment your audience?
- What is your ad budget?
- What kind of analysis tools are you looking to measure your return on ad spend (ROAS)?
In this article, we break down the key facets of LinkedIn and Facebook ads. Analyzing your answers to the above questions through this comparison will help you choose the best ad platform for your business or marketing goals.
Comparing LinkedIn Ads vs. Facebook Ads
Audience Targeting Capabilities
Both Facebook and LinkedIn offer ambitious targeting capabilities. However, comparing the two would be like comparing apples and oranges, as both platforms help you reach different audiences. Many believe LinkedIn to be better for B2B marketers who want to hone in on professional connections. For example, a B2B SaaS vendor can target “Marketing Directors” at companies generating a certain amount of revenue in the tech sector. They can easily do this by categorizing LinkedIn users by:
- Job title
- Industry
- Seniority
- Skills
- Company size
- Educational background
Its razor-sharp audience segmentation feature is likely why 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing, while 78% use it for paid ads. LinkedIn ads also draw high praise from 40% of B2B marketers, who agree it is the most effective platform for capturing high-quality leads.
In comparison, Facebook’s ad targeting is not just broader, but it’s also more interest-based. The fact that it has over three billion monthly active users helps—this figure is more than double what LinkedIn hosts. As a result, you can reach a wider demographic on Facebook, targeting everyone from students to retirees. Using Facebook also allows advertisers to segment their audiences based on various categories, including:
- Age
- Location
- Gender
- Interests
- Browsing behaviour (e.g., device used, purchase behaviour)
- Connections
You can filter your audience through a custom feature or use the Lookalike Audiences feature to find similar users. While Facebook Ads tend to reach interest-based audiences, they may not help you target high-level decision makers as confidently as LinkedIn does. LinkedIn’s audience features working professionals, of whom at least 53% come from high-income households, making it the perfect channel to target influential buying committees and C-suite executives.
The great news is that both LinkedIn and Facebook ads offer retargeting options through niche tools. You can use the Facebook Pixel feature to drive custom retargeting campaigns, whereas you can use Matched Audiences and Audience Expansion on LinkedIn to target specific roles.
LinkedIn vs. Facebook Ad Formats
LinkedIn’s ad formats drive more precise lead capture, catering to professional content marketing and business-focused ads. Most marketers use it to advertise long-form content pieces, such as white papers and case studies, to draw the interest of buying committees. For instance, a LinkedIn advertising campaign might use the Sponsored Content option to promote the download of an industry report to capture leads. Or, it may send targeted audiences a webinar link via Message Ads.
Facebook’s ad format ecosystem is more geared toward capturing impulse purchases and displaying entertainment-focused ads to a wider consumer base. Let’s look at the ad formats that both platforms offer in detail:
LinkedIn Ad Formats
- Sponsored Content: Marketers can use this to promote content in an in-feed image, carousel, or video ads in the LinkedIn feed.
- Message Ads (formerly InMail feature): B2B marketers can use this feature to send personalized outreach messages to executives, directly to their LinkedIn inbox
- Lead Generation Forms: Most marketers attach a lead-gen form to their Sponsored Content to capture high-quality leads. When a target user clicks on your content to access or download it, it prompts them to fill out the form
- Dynamic Ads: These help you create personalized ads based on a target user’s LinkedIn profile using features like “Spotlight”
- Text Ads/Job Ads: These ads appear on LinkedIn’s sidebar or header and are most widely used for recruitment purposes
Facebook Ad Formats
- Stories and Reel Ads: These are similar to Instagram’s Reel ads—they showcase ads in a full-screen, mobile-first format to promote products or services
- Multimedia and Carousel Ads: These typically appear in your target’s feed as a swipe-friendly ad showcasing various new products or services
- Collection and Instant Experience: Formerly known as Canvas, these tools help you provide a more immersive experience to your target audience. While “Collection” leads users to a product catalog, Instant Experience helps you create mini landing pages with multimedia options
- Lead Ads: These mimic lead-gen forms on LinkedIn. Users can sign up to access key information or insights via a pre-populated form, without leaving the app
- Marketplace Ads: These ads target Facebook Marketplace users while browsing for specific products
- Messenger Ads: These help you land a personalized ad directly into your target user’s inbox
As you can see, Facebook’s advertising formats offer a more visually rich context, helping drive high interaction with B2C users. LinkedIn ads are a more popular way to reach professional B2B audiences who prefer insight-rich content.
User Intent and Engagement
User mindset matters when you’re deciding between LinkedIn and Facebook ads. For instance, there’s little value in promoting a technical white paper on optimizing cloud infrastructure on Facebook, where the audience is not only vast, but is also brimming with a social or leisure-oriented mindset.
Instead, your technical asset is more likely to shine and gain traction on LinkedIn, where users are more primed to act. CEOs, technical engineers, and operations leads actively seek solutions or research B2B products or services in the professional sphere. So when they encounter assets like webinars or e-books on LinkedIn, they’re more likely to engage and convert than on Facebook.
Facebook will likely see lower conversion rates for B2B offerings because its users are not in-market for business products or solutions. They’re here for casual browsing. However, LinkedIn’s targeted business approach suits B2B marketing campaigns better and drives higher conversions.
That said, leveraging Facebook for business and B2B campaigns isn’t entirely wild. Many marketers (75% of them) still favour it over LinkedIn to drive awareness and for retargeting campaigns.
Cost and Return on Investment (ROI)
Facebook and LinkedIn ads offer distinct pricing structures—but their yields also differ. LinkedIn ads, for instance, are more expensive per click, but they’re known to offer more qualified leads. Here’s some industry data that better highlights the cost and ROI for each:
- Cost per click or CPC: The average LinkedIn CPC comes to around $2 to $3, depending on industry and target audience. This figure is much lower for Facebook, at less than $1.
- Cost per mille (CPM): This metric refers to the cost an advertiser expends for every 1,000 ad impressions. For LinkedIn ad users, there is a higher cost, averaging at $5-$8, whereas Facebook’s CPM is around $1-$3.
- Cost per lead (CPL): Depending on industry competitiveness and how niche your audience is, the cost of a LinkedIn lead may be more premium compared to Facebook’s, averaging at $50 or above.
A Hubspot study reported that LinkedIn’s visitor-to-lead conversion rate was higher (2.74%) than Facebook’s (0.77%). This indicates that LinkedIn ads bring in more qualified leads who are willing to make a purchase.
So, is Facebook’s return on ad spend less than impressive? Not necessarily. Facebook advertising operates differently, especially for B2B targets—they’re less premium than LinkedIn, thus driving a higher volume of traffic that is here for general awareness or info-seeking that may not necessarily convert. However, Facebook ads may show higher ROAS for B2C or smaller e-commerce companies, especially for awareness and retargeting campaigns.
Cost and Return on Investment (ROI)
Facebook and LinkedIn ads offer distinct pricing structures—but their yields also differ. LinkedIn ads, for instance, are more expensive per click, but they’re known to offer more qualified leads. Here’s some industry data that better highlights the cost and ROI for each:
- Cost per click or CPC: The average LinkedIn CPC comes to around $2 to $3, depending on industry and target audience. This figure is much lower for Facebook, at less than $1.
- Cost per mille (CPM): This metric refers to the cost an advertiser expends for every 1,000 ad impressions. For LinkedIn ad users, there is a higher cost, averaging at $5-$8, whereas Facebook’s CPM is around $1-$3.
- Cost per lead (CPL): Depending on industry competitiveness and how niche your audience is, the cost of a LinkedIn lead may be more premium compared to Facebook’s, averaging at $50 or above.
A Hubspot study reported that LinkedIn’s visitor-to-lead conversion rate was higher (2.74%) than Facebook’s (0.77%). This indicates that LinkedIn ads bring in more qualified leads who are willing to make a purchase.
So, is Facebook’s return on ad spend less than impressive? Not necessarily. Facebook advertising operates differently, especially for B2B targets—they’re less premium than LinkedIn, thus driving a higher volume of traffic that is here for general awareness or info-seeking that may not necessarily convert. However, Facebook ads may show higher ROAS for B2C or smaller e-commerce companies, especially for awareness and retargeting campaigns.
Facebook vs. LinkedIn Analytics
LinkedIn and Facebook offer varying depths of analysis on ads and impressions. Let’s take a look at both.
LinkedIn Analytics
LinkedIn’s analytics tool is the LinkedIn Campaign Manager, a central dashboard that categorizes impressions as per three aspects:
- Updates: This tracks the performance of your sponsored posts
- Followers: Shows the extent to which your audience grows. You can further expand and see your audience demographics by job function and industry
- Visitors: It shows the visitors to your company page, helping you refine your targeting and retargeting campaigns
This feature on LinkedIn allows you to track impressions, clicks, form submissions, and engagement specifics. This means you get an in-depth view of a user’s professional demographics, including seniority level and industry.
Another standout feature most B2B marketers use is Insight Tag, a tool to help you track conversions from LinkedIn ads. When a potential buyer engages with your ad on LinkedIn, clicks through to your website, and performs an action such as downloading a report or filling out a form, the Insight Tag tool collects and shows you these conversions.
Alternatively, you can use an image pixel to track a specific event or type of conversion, such as submitting a form or signing up for a demo request.
Facebook Analytics
Some marketers argue that the Facebook Ads Manager is more elaborate, although this depends on the metrics you want to track. For instance, Facebook provides more granular campaign metrics, such as:
- Exact number of website clicks
- Sign-ups
- Video views
- Offline actions synced to an ad
- Overview of reach and likes
- Page visits
- Negative feedback metrics
You can also track the number of purchases or leads you captured for each ad, and expand them to view specific demographics such as age and gender. This works especially well for e-commerce Facebook ads.
The bottom line: where Facebook gives you more volume-related traffic (“25-34 year-old women saw your ad”), LinkedIn gives you more in-depth information about your most engaged audience (X Member, a Marketing Manager from ABC Company, downloaded your e-book”). The latter is useful for business-focused marketing where you’re selling to a B2B audience.
Facebook vs. LinkedIn Ads: Which is Best For Your Business?
LinkedIn ads offer more sophisticated yet narrower audience targeting options for B2B professionals. That said, past data reflects a high conversion rate through these ads. If your focus is brand-building and lead generation in tech, finance, or consulting sectors, LinkedIn might be a better platform to handle your ad needs—primarily due to its audience’s business mindset. The flipside of advertising on LinkedIn is that there is a significant cost barrier. You must also promote high-quality content to stand out amid its smallish user base.
With its extensive user base and high engagement, Facebook can get you more impressions and clicks at a much lower cost. It’s ideal if you intend to bolster brand awareness, social proof, and adapt your format across multiple touchpoints. However, Facebook’s casual browsing mindset can be a let-down for business messaging content.
Deciding which advertising platform is best for your business or brand is never a cakewalk. The good news is that there are experts to help you make a balanced decision based on your business goals, budget, and advertising strategy. Merged Media can help you gain clarity here—we know the ins and outs of advertising on Facebook vs. LinkedIn. Whether it’s targeted ad creation or optimizing conversions, our expert team helps you spend your ad dollars wisely. Book a strategy call with us today.
